


A Second First Kiss

by gallifreyanlibertea



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-03 16:45:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14000358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallifreyanlibertea/pseuds/gallifreyanlibertea
Summary: Alfred's first kiss wasn't necessarily his first one.





	A Second First Kiss

It was almost fate, the moment Alfred had scrambled to the school auditorium to drag his finger down the cast list. He found his name somewhere in the middle-  _Alfred Jones… Mr. Adams._

Well, Alfred had expected to get the part. He knew he was good, yet not good enough for the young lead role, so he ended up with the equally-important role of the lead’s father, which was good enough for him.

The  _fate_  part came with the fact that the name right underneath Alfred’s read-  _Arthur Kirkland… Mr. Bradford._

Yes, the  _fate_  part came with the fact that Arthur Kirkland, undeniably the hottest omega in the drama department, would be playing the man Alfred’s character falls in love with in a secondary romantic story arc in the musical.

And yes, this meant Alfred would have to kiss him. Alfred would have to kiss someone for the first time ever- that someone being  _Arthur Kirkland_ \- and he would have to do it with an audience.

Fate, or damnation?

“Hi, I’m Arthur,” Arthur had said during their first rehearsal, and Alfred wanted to scream that _he knew_  because who didn’t recognize the maddeningly beautiful yet stoically tempered Arthur Kirkland? Alfred would be a fool not to know him after having been to the school productions and falling immediately in love with every character Arthur so masterfully played. “Is this your first time in a musical?”

“It’s my first time doing theatre! I’ve never been on stage before.” Alfred said, and he ought to have stopped right then and there. He knew the only reason Arthur was talking to him was because the director had forced the leads to mingle, yet his idiot mouth seemed to have a mind of its own. “I wasn’t going to try out, but I saw your performance last semester and I was, uh, I was like, inspired.”

Idiot. Alfred wanted to kick himself, but Arthur smiled. It was a soft, polite smile, but nevertheless, it was a smile. “That’s sweet of you to say.”

And then the interaction was over as they settled to do a quick read through.

Alfred’s character seemed to always have lines after Arthur’s, which was truly unfortunate. What Arthur did so elegantly, Alfred followed through like a toddler stuttering out his first words, “Anthony, had you seen- oh, sorry, uh,  _have_  you seen my, um, blazer?”

Idiot!

“And good night to you too, Mr. Adams.” Arthur read later on in the script, after which a few giggles permeated the room.

A man with shoulder-length blond hair nudged Arthur with a smirk, “This is where you kiss.”

Arthur wrinkled his nose. “Yes, I’m aware.”

He then turned to Alfred with a small, rosy-cheeked smile, as if reassuring Alfred that the stale look wasn’t particularly because Alfred was repulsive. Alfred returned the smile a little stiffly.

Stiffly because, well, he expected that soon he would actually have to  _kiss_ Arthur, and although the time wasn’t just then, it would be soon.

‘Soon’ happened in two weeks.

In two weeks, Alfred found himself clutching his car’s steering wheel, watching as Arthur clicked in his seatbelt.

They’d figured out that the two of them lived around the same area, so Arthur suggested they carpool, and Alfred would never say no to an idea that meant sitting in close quarters with the omega, the car’s air conditioning whipping that intoxicating scent around the car like an air freshener.

“I can tell he’s getting mad, you know,” Arthur said, referring to the director.

He was indeed getting mad. Just that day, he’d sighed as Arthur and Alfred had jerked apart moments before they were meant to rehearse the kiss scene. “It’s not hard.” He’d said, burying his face in his palms. “You don’t have to actually be in love, just act like it,  _like actors do.”_

Arthur’s cheeks were red. “I just can’t kiss you, you know?”

Alfred chuckled through the knot in his throat, “Wow, thanks, I guess.”

“No, it’s not like that… you’re… um, well, you’re definitely not bad-looking, that’s not the case.”

Alfred’s heart skipped a beat.

“I suppose I’m just a bit shy.” Arthur mused, leaning back in his seat with a light groan, “It will come by opening night, I hope.”

He laughed slightly at that. Alfred did not.

It was different today because normally, Alfred would laugh himself silly over the tiniest jokes Arthur would make just to see that small satisfied smile on his lips. God, it was so cute. Arthur Kirkland was  _so cute._

Which was precisely the reason Alfred didn’t laugh this time. It was because he had a plan.

A devious plan, yes, slightly- but it was a plan.

“I guess we could always practice it on our own.”

Arthur paused, as if pondering Alfred’s proposal. “We could.”

Alfred had already fished his script out of his bag, twisting to the backseat of the car to shimmy the binder out of its place nestled between his Calculus and Physics textbook. “I have the script here.”

“You want to do it now?” Arthur said, brows slightly furrowed. “In the school parking lot, Alfred?”

“Why not?” Alfred muttered, suddenly cotton-mouthed. “We’re just acting, right?”

Just acting, definitely. It was just acting. This was the first year Alfred had been interested in theatre, and although Alfred loved to act, he also wanted to  _act._.. for the first time. He wanted to act all over Arthur Kirkland, until those perfect pink lips were swollen red. From the acting.

“Right.” Arthur echoed softly. He shifted in his seat to peer into the script Alfred had propped open in between them. “I suppose I’ll start then.  _Tonight was fun, Mr. Adams.”_

_“Indeed it was, Mr. Bradford, you have a good night.”_

Arthur chewed his bottom lip, “ _And good night to you too, Mr. Adams.”_

Here it was. Alfred could go for it now, seeing as they weren’t on a stage with spotlights focused right on them. Although, he still clenched up at the sight of Arthur’s face just inches away from his-  _oh god, when had he gotten that close?_  God, he could count the slight freckles across Arthur’s nose, he could-

“I’m just not feeling it, Alfred.”

Alfred paused. “What?”

Arthur pulled away, leaning back in his seat much to Alfred’s dismay. “The emotion comes with our relationship being built up in the beginning of the musical. I don’t know how to replicate that now.”

“Do you…” Alfred cleared his throat, “Would you like to try.”

Arthur smiled.

“Alright, think about it this way,” Alfred said, “Adams and Bradford were just on a date. That’s us. I’m walking you home, and the moonlight just makes everything, like, ten times romantic-er.”

Arthur wrinkled his nose, “I don’t think that’s a word-”

“Shh,” Alfred said with a smile Arthur mirrored onto his own face. “Now imagine it. We’re getting closer now, and you can smell my scent, and it’s driving you crazy-”

On the contrary, it was quite the opposite. Alfred was close again now, and god, the proximity drove him crazy. That silken scent of Arthur’s drove him crazy. This was really happening, and those soft, pink lips were parted so invitingly, and  _god,_  Alfred was going to kiss him, it was finally going to happen.

Arthur jerked away with a smirk. “Oh, so your scent is driving me crazy?”

Out of all the times Arthur chose to crack a joke or to poke fun at Alfred, this time right now had to have been the worst. Alfred bit back the urge to sigh impatiently. “Well, yeah, I’m writing into the canon that Adams smells like straight-up sex appeal.”

“Oh?” Arthur smiled. “And what does Bradford smell like?”

“Bradford smells like he wants to be kissed,” Alfred said.

“And what does an omega smell like when he wants to be kissed?” Arthur questioned with humoured eyes and Alfred couldn’t take it anymore, because  _hell,_  if Alfred knew, it would do him a lot of good to try to identify the scent on Arthur’s neck.

Was the mischief glittering in Arthur’s eyes just that, or something more? Was it asking, or rejecting? Was it this, or that? White or black? God, nothing made sense anymore, and everything, every shape, every form, every feeling around him was a blur except for the incredibly sharp throbbing in his chest that screamed at him to plunge forward and  _just kiss Arthur already._

Alfred supposed that in that blur, he’d actually gone and done it, because the next thing he knew, he was opening his eyes to find a rather surprised-looking pair of greens looking right back at him. Arthur’s lips glistened from what was probably the aftermath of Alfred’s lips attacking them. Alfred’s breath stuck in his chest. “Uh, I-”

Arthur parted his lips for words, cheeks aflame. He then turned in his seat, eyeing his feet with a small, almost nervous laugh.

Alfred didn’t know a boy like Arthur Kirkland could be nervous.

“I’ve got a lot of homework to do tonight.”

“I’ll… um, yeah, sorry, I’ll get you home as fast as I can.”

“Take your time,” Arthur said, and he was smiling now. It was not quite a smile Alfred would have liked- it was nothing indicating he had enjoyed the kiss. It was rather an expression that completely glossed over the event from before. It was as if Arthur had ‘forgotten’. “Don’t speed for my sake.”

Alfred didn’t speed, and Arthur didn’t talk to him on the way home.

Although, in the end, as Arthur scrambled out of Alfred’s car like his life depended on it, he said, “I, um, I’ll see you tomorrow, Alfred.”

He then paused, as if wanting to say more, before ultimately stopping short with a smile and a wave and that was that.

That was that, and Alfred felt bad for Arthur. What a poor guy, to be forced to kiss a guy like Alfred every week had to be a chore.

Alfred was likely a bad kisser. He’d never done it before, yes, and now that he’d had time to process the event, he could remember the awkward bumping of their noses, the slightly strangled-sounding noise in the back of Arthur’s throat. 

Perhaps, instead of choosing to put up with it, Arthur would request the director to kick Alfred out. Arthur was too valuable to leave, so that was the next likely choice.

Out of all the options that had played endlessly in Alfred’s head- throughout the rest of the day, throughout the night as he lay tossing and turning in his bed, throughout the next day as he shifted restlessly in his classroom desk- none of them could have predicted that Arthur would be standing on the stage across from him now, like nothing had happened the day before.

Nor could he predict that Arthur would deliver his lines without a single wobble in his voice, despite the obviously nervous _tartness_  in his scent. “Tonight was fun, Mr. Adams.”

“Indeed it was, Mr. Bradford, you have a good night.” Alfred choked out. The director raised his eyebrows and Alfred had repeated it again, smoother.

“And good night to you too, Mr. Adams.”

Alfred had then stood there in anticipation, feeling a tension between them that he could’ve full well sliced open with a knife.

And then, in a manner that Alfred  _certainly_  could never have predicted, Arthur had practically launched himself into Alfred’s arms, lips clumsily moving against Alfred’s own in a kiss far messier, far sloppier than the one Alfred had planted on Arthur yesterday in the car.

And it was great.

Arthur pulled away with an expression like a deer in the headlights. It was only upon noticing that the scent rolling off Arthur’s shoulders was the same one as last night in the car, that it was one of  _arousal_ , that Alfred tugged him in for another kiss. 

It wasn’t quite in character of them, but then again, it could have been one  _really_ good date. Arthur was kissing him like he intended to bruise Alfred’s lips, and Alfred was kissing him back like Arthur was the only ice-cold coke in the desert, and wow. Dear god, it was  _wow,_ and there was nothing else to describe it.

Well, perhaps one could say it was a second first kiss. It was a  _first is the worst, second is the best_  first kiss. It was an embarrassingly arousing second first kiss, and although Arthur Kirkland’s lips were on his for the second time, if a kiss could ever be labelled as ‘a first kiss’, this would certainly be it.

The director cleared his throat, to which the two pulled apart to look at him for feedback. The cast members sitting in the audience watched with mouths agape.

The director then coughed. “I know I said act like you’re in love, but for my job’s sake, act like you’re in a Disney-Channel kind of love, okay?”


End file.
